Pharmaceutical containers for liquids have a pierceable closure member such as a disc or stopper formed of rubber or like material and a metallic cap to hold the stopper in place. Such caps generally have an inner central removable disc detachably secured to the outer annular top portion of the cap by fractionable bridges. For example, by lifting off the center disc portion the stopper area is made available. An alternate system for such caps employs a cover attached to the outer annular portion of the cap and may be removed by pushing the cover off with the thumb (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,071,274). Still another alternative technique is the use of a tear-off cap which provides a hinged central portion at the top of the cap to provide a grip for tearing off the cover over the stopper and around the top of the container. Material is conventionally removed from, and often added to, the container by means of a hypodermic needle and syringe and it is often desired to inject an additive to such containers, particularly those containing intravenous solutions. In such instance, it is necessary, of course, to keep records of what has been added, but the opportunity for the loss of records and ultimate confusion and errors exist.
The present invention provides a simple means to immediately indicate whether or not a solution in a pharmaceutical container has been altered and the user of the solution can also immediately know what has been added to the container. This result is achieved by this invention which provides a protective easily removed over-cap for the altered container which over-cap may be color coded or otherwise distinguished to identify the container contents. In addition, the protective over-cap of the invention provides evidence of tampering with the contents of the container when the removable top portion is seen to have been removed.